When will women achieve gender equality in leadership at work?

A compelling new study shows that top global companies in Asia, Europe and the US have advanced little beyond mere tokenism when it comes to placing women in leadership roles.

A UK-based global gender consulting firm, 20-first, published its fifth annual gender balance scorecard this month. In the US, the study found some optimistic conclusions: 60% of top corporations have at least two women on their executive committees, and eight corporations – including IBM, Pepsi Corporation and General Motors – have women CEOs. Overall, however, the results were less encouraging. Men hold 83% of the executive committee positions within top US companies, leaving 11% of women in staff roles and 6% in line roles.

In Europe's top 100 companies, the situation for women was even less promising. Men hold 89% of executive committee jobs; women hold 6% of staff roles and 5% are in line roles. The gender balance was even worse in Asia, where men hold 96% of senior roles, leaving 3% of women in staff roles and 1% in line roles. In these three regions combined, women hold only 11% of the 3,000 executive committee spots in the 300 companies surveyed.

What's going on?

Causes for Gender Imbalance

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, 20-first's CEO, sees several obstacles impeding corporate gender balance. First, she says, society, women – and corporate leaders – have miss-framed and miss-analyzed the problem, categorizing it as a diversity dimension. Yet this is a setup-to-fail frame, because this categorization, she argues, is simply unrealistic. "Gender diversity is an oxymoron given only two genders exist," she says. "Besides, if women are 60% of global work talent (ie the world's college graduates) and make 80% of the purchasing decisions of consumer goods, then why is adding more women leaders adding diversity?"

Another problem, Cox points out, is that society has asked women – instead of corporate leaders – to fix the issue. She says that, for the past decade, corporate efforts have largely focused around initiatives aimed at women. Mentoring, coaching and women's leadership conferences are spreading, despite the research showing their ineffectiveness at shifting the balance.

Many programs ask women to adopt more masculine styles in order to succeed. Cox says, however, that when these women move in a masculine direction, no one likes the result. These "adapted women" serve as anti-role models to the next generation of younger woman, Cox explains. "They say, 'if that's what it takes to make it in this company, I'm leaving.' Then you have a retention problem."

"Fixing women and turning them into men is not successful nor a sustainable strategy," Cox says. "If companies want to balance, those in power must lead the change, reframe gender balance as a business not a women's issue. That's the only way to focus on the kernel of the issue: the current dominant majority and their mindsets."

On the invitation of progressive CEOs, Cox's company works with leadership teams to help them see the virtue in including the entire talent pool within their company, not just men. Accepting the status quo leaves too much at stake, she says. "Not advancing women into leadership roles is sad for the women talent, but also tragic for the company which faces an unfortunate loss of talent, creativity and innovation."

Creating change

So how do companies create change? One way is bringing in consultants like 20-first and helping the executive team decide whether they truly want and value gender balance. After the team agrees on the changes needed, 20-first helps implement these changes, partly by educating managers on gender differences.

For instance, few women ask, or lobby for power. Managers uniformly interpret this tendency as a lack of ambition, but Cox says that most women assume a manager will notice when they perform well and promote them accordingly.

Additionally, many companies fail to consider that men and women's career lifecycles are often different. Managers tend to identify high-potential leaders when candidates are aged 30-35. Yet this policy unwittingly eliminates women from the talent pipeline because many have children around this age. In their 40s, when many women refocus on their careers, it is often too late, Cox says.

Experts believe communication plays some role in gender imbalance. Heidi Schultz, professor and director of management and corporate communication at the UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School, says that, if a person wants to project power and influence, then vocal pitch, inflection, speaking speed and even silence or pauses can be exceedingly important. Schultz added that studies show a correlation between lower pitched voices and higher levels of testosterone – the hormone associated with power and dominance – and men typically trump women here.

"What's interesting to me is that all but one of the women CEOs who head the nine companies cited in the 20-first study speak with what I would consider low pitch. And not one of them up-inflects when talking," she says. Schultz adds that, when your voice goes up at the end of a statement, you come across as tentative and questioning of your own assumptions. "Obviously vocal quality is not the only defining factor in a corporate leader – this is just one piece of the puzzle. But I think we really do need to train more women to adopt the 'corporate leader's voice."

Resistance to change is another obstacle. Cox says that executive boards are often less aligned than the CEO thinks. For instance, in the first open discussion, the CEO is often surprised that many on his board do not seek the same gender balance at all – nor are they willing to put forward the required effort for change. "There is resistance because the CEO is just one person," she says.

Cost is another deterrent. Malli Gero, executive director of the 20-20 Women on Boards, a national campaign working to see women holding 20% of the seats on US corporate executive boards by 2020, finds that smaller companies lack access to successful talented women and often don't have the funds to hire an expensive recruiter. "This call for change is something companies are slow to adopt because it is expensive and hard."

Striking better balance

Even so, experts predict greater gender balance within corporations. Schultz says, for instance, that women can train their voices to address any challenges; this is something that she does in her classes. "It's not a quick or easy fix," she admits. "It takes dedication, determination, practice and lots of time." But it's doable.  

Increasing awareness of gender corporate imbalance will also help, as will encouraging increased corporate transparency. Gero's group publishes an annual database of over 1,500 companies, classified by the gender diversity of their boards, as well as an annual index of the Fortune 1,000 that tracks progress. The campaign also hosts national awareness events in most states.

Richard Hytner, deputy chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, suggests that change will require a shift in the way companies view leadership. Leadership, he says, needn't be confined to CEOs – it is possible and fulfilling for many to make profound leadership contributions from various roles and functions, including finance, operations, strategy and technology.

"Our obsession with the top job suggests that leaders – men and women – who fail to make it to the top or who choose actively to pass up that opportunity, prefer instead to lead from behind the out-and-out leader," Hytner says. This perspective suggests that mid-level leaders "somehow lack the ambition and killer instinct of the alpha male".

Hytner suggests that, if companies view leadership as a lateral adventure instead of a linear journey, they might soon conclude that many men and women can and do make it into leadership roles, without even realizing it.

"We need a new model for leadership that eliminates the depressing syndrome of 'the second' and instead places greater value on those who lead more with emotional intelligence than with ego," he adds. "Who says that coming top is the best and only option for all aspiring leaders?"

D G McCullough is an independent writer, editor and owner of Hanging Rock Media in Cary, North Carolina

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